138 



TEETH. 



Should the person to whom the teeth are exhibited, by an evident 

 lack .of recognition declare his ignorance of their announcement, the 

 honest dealer may slyly quiz his patron's want of knowledge^ but 

 assuredly he will not endeavor to take advantage of it. The author of 

 the present volume has found the dealers in horse flesh to be quite as 

 honest as, if not more honest than, traders in less perishable commodi- 

 ties. There are certain blackguards who profess to be dealers in horses, 

 but who have no fixed place of abode or of business. So also there are 

 scamps who style themselves traveling jewelers and itinerant book- 

 sellers ; but the transactions of neither class of rogues (he whose stock 

 in trade consists of a whip, or they whose most valuable possession is 

 the mahogany box or the specimen number which is carried from house 

 to house) can be taken as evidence against the more respectable members 

 of the calling to which all will assume to belong. A gentleman, igno- 

 rant of any acquaintance with jockey-ship, can walk with perfect safety 

 into the yard of any respectable dealer ; look at the animals which are 

 for sale, and walk out again, without encountering any undue solicitation 

 to purchase. How many shops are there in London, in which a person, 

 equally uninformed, could perform the like manoeuvre ? 



When this is written, it is not meant to imply that a horse dealer 

 keeps all his stock open to public inspection. On the contrary, in most 

 respectable yards there are certain snuggeries which conceal the more 

 choice articles. The pick of these are not even open to every purchaser 

 who can pay the price. ISTo 1 Horse and picture dealers are alike in one 

 characteristic trait : each has a pride in the article he sells. The first 

 individual will allow his dinner to grow cold, while he remains gloating 

 over the points and beauties of some fresh acquisition. "How it would 

 look carrying Her Majesty I" The image amuses his fancy I "What a 

 spanker to hold a first place in the Beaufort hunt 1" He warms with the 

 idea ! " What a charger it would make for Cambridge at a Hyde Park 

 Review !" He is in ecstasies at the thought ! He cannot possibly decide 

 what so much perfection is fit for. He can never consent to treat such 

 loveliness as a mere chattel, — a thing to be sold and then to be enveloped 

 in obscurity. The animal must not be parted with to any unknown 

 individual I The feeling common to his order forbids him to exhibit the 

 object of his pride to general inspection. But he might dispose of it, 

 even at a sacrifice, were he convinced it would occupy such a position as 

 he esteems it is fitted to adorn. He then could point to the animal and 

 vaunt that it came from his yard. Honor, fame, and profit must accrue 

 to him who could refer to such exalted dealings ; — therefore there is a 

 strong sense of self lurking under that which at first glance appears to 

 be mere Quixotic denial of self. 



